Club3D Radeon HD2600PRO 512MB GDDR2 problem.

Lafortezza

I bought a new PC from komplett.ie :

Cooler Master Mystique 631, Black Steel (Without PSU)
Corsair Powersupply 550W ATX/EPS, 120mm fan, 4xSATA, SLI
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3, P35, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, ICH9, DES, PCI-Ex16
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
Corsair TWIN2X 6400C5DHX DDR2, 2048MB Kit w/two CL5 1GB Dimm's, E.P.P and DHX
Club3D Radeon HD2600PRO 512MB, GDDR2, PCI-Express, 2xDVI, HDCP, HDMI
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-7200S, 20x, SATA, DVD+R/+RW/DVD-R/-RW/Ram
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2b
Creative SB Audigy SE

Using the mouse/keyboard/monitor from my old PC.

When I play any Half-Life 2 game, Day of Defeat, Counterstrike, the game will run fine for between 5 minutes and 15 minutes at 1200x800 widescreen. Then it will crash to desktop and the ATI Catalyst Control Centre software that controls the graphics card will produce the error :

"VPU recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands".

So essentially the Graphics card has reset and the game I was playing auto-quits, and I'm back at desktop.
Half-Life 2 and it's mods are not very new so I'm surprised this error is happening.
I have the newest drivers for the graphics card, and the ATI Catalyst Control software.
The card is not overheating. It is at 50-54 degrees at idle at desktop, and rises to 63 degrees when playing Half-Life 2.
I've googled til i nearly died from it, and there seems to be loads of people with this VPU Recover problem. But nobody has a definite solution or has even pinpointed what the problem is.
Most solutions just involve: "Buy NVidia."

I've contacted komplett and Club3D, no replies yet though. Just thought I'd ask here too.

Edit: I've tried turning off VPU Recover in Catalyst Control Centre, same problems.

Rsaeire

The only decent bit of information I found was on this site. It goes through a range of possible issues and ways in which to resolve them. You might have come across the link yourself, but if not, it's definitely worth a read.

Lafortezza

Thanks, the solution seems to be an NVidia 8800GT 1GB!

TerrorFirmer

lafortezza wrote: »

Thanks, the solution seems to be an NVidia 8800GT 1GB!

Oh lord no! Don't do it man. The 1gb model is generally slower then the 512mb one, and maybe 1% faster at best in a few select scenarios (i.e 51fps vs 50fps).

Lafortezza

Seriously?

I had it narrowed down to one of these three:
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343610
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341856
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=349120

I'm mostly a tech noob, but i imagined for the price 1GB >>> 512MB

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Oh lord no! Don't do it man. The 1gb model is generally slower then the 512mb one, and maybe 1% faster at best in a few select scenarios (i.e 51fps vs 50fps).

TerrorFirmer

No, forget the memory - 512mb is sufficient, even 320mb GTS/384mb 8800GS is OK at 1440x900 and under with high settings. The only cards that can make use of 512-1gb are the high end brute cards - and let alone that, but most games don't really even require more then 320mb texture memory at the moment.

Check the graphics forum for info on the new 4870 and 4850 cards, excellent performers generally pummeling Nvidia in price:performance ratio.

What size is your monitor? If the native res is 1280x800.....then an 8800GS for 80-90 euro will slay any game at highest settings and you've no real need for anything much faster. ('cept Crysis blah blah exception blah blah)

Also the 320mb 8800GTS OC is selling cheap on a lot of websites (100-ish)....at 1280x1024 easily match 8800GTS 512mb/9600GT/8800GT performance as far as you'll notice. In most of yesterdays/current games, the 320mb 8800GTS can beat the 9600GT, for example - just because it's old doesn't mean it's still not a killer card...

Don't let the price ranges fool you either, an 80 euro 8800GS makes absolutely mincemeat of something like the 2600Pro....you're talking 200% faster range and will drive Day of Defeat Source/Half Life 2/Cs Source at 1280x800 max settings 16xAA/16xAF with a butter smooth framerate.

Lafortezza

1680x1050 widescreen is my preferred resolution on an Acer 22" monitor. I'd like the gfx card I buy to basically be happy running any games I buy in the next 2-3 years, although I'm not a huge gamer especially for the latest and most demanding games.

Tony Broke

HD4850 is faster than all cards you listed.

Only 147 euros, nice match for your pc and screen

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/1304949/art/sapphire-technology/radeon-hd-4850-512-mb-gdd.html

Forget about temps, cards are designed to run above boiling point these days.